How Often Should I Change My Waterbed Safety Liner?

The waterbed safety liner is one of the most important parts of your waterbed next to your mattress and it needs to be replace periodically. Whether you have a softside or hardside both types of waterbeds need a safety liner. If the unfortunate should happen and you get a leak the liner is the only thing that stands between you and an unnatural disaster inside your home which brings us to why safety liners need be and should be changed out.

Reasons to replace a safety liner

People spend thousands of dollars and fancy plush carpeting and its padding. Hardwood floors we really shouldn’t have to go into much detail as to why we wouldn’t want those to get flooded especially if you ever set a drink on a piece of wood furniture and it left a ring stain on it. Finally there are subfloors and the cost of labor to tear out, fix, or replace any of the previously mentioned. Purchasing a new liner is solid preventive maintenance and is always suggested and recommended by our sales staff to the customers at STL Beds when buying a new water mattress or a heater. To replace these items the bed needs to be drained which makes it a perfect time to swap the old liner out for a new one. Unfortunately many of these consumers never give the safety liner a second thought until it’s too late and they have water all over the floor. We don’t believe it’s worth the aggravation and definitely will give the bed owner some peace of mind by changing out this twenty five dollar replaceable throw away liner which is the last and final safety net of a waterbed.

How long do liners normally last?

We consider safety liners a 5 year product at best. The corners tend to split and separate. Liners even start to break down along the sides and in the corners which in the case of a leak would easily allow the water to flow over the top. Dirty liner and hardware screw heads or metal burs can puncture them. Some do it your selfers will cover their hardware with duct tape and we don’t discourage it although is not something we do as part of a waterbed installation. Just don’t put it over your heater pad! A wood splinter from your decking is another culprit.

What are the types of liners?

Almost all safety liners made today for Hardside waterbeds are what the industry calls stand up liners. Just lay them in the bed an pull them into all 4 corners, get most the wrinkles out of the bottom especially over the heater and your done. They are simple to install and take only a couple of minutes and one person. The old tack up and clip up liners are history. They took much longer to put in and used tacks are screws to hold them in position. Some times they would pull out and puncture mattresses making them counter productive.

Softside waterbeds use a fitted liner which over laps your foam rails like a fitted sheet. It usually has the same 5 year life expectancy.

Just remember if you over fill your mattress you are taking a very big risk. An over filled mattress that leaks can overflow the safety liner no matter how good your safety liner is so be sure to fill your waterbed mattress to the correct fill level.

Author: Douglas Belleville

Doug Belleville and his father Dave own and run STLBeds - a specialty sleep store located in Arnold, MO. The staff at STLBeds is highly educated about sleep, comfort and their special sleep products. STLBeds only carries high quality mattresses and bed-related products. You won't find the brand names here - click here to find out why!